The new year is looking bright for many of Hawaii’s public school students thanks to the efforts of ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro.

He’s completed a project he started last August to repair 100 damaged Kamaka ukuleles in Hawaii’s public schools.

Shimabukuro stepped in, often times repairing them while he was on touring around the world.

He says he wasn’t sure if he would be able to complete the project by the end of the year, but with some hard work and a little bit of help, it paid off.

“But if you had asked me two months ago I would have said no way we’re going to finish this but the last week I had a lot of help,” Shimabukuro told KHON2. “For me, I went to Ala Wai Elementary School where we got a ton of ukulele from Ala Wai and those were the Kamaka that I learned on.”

The refurbished ukulele will be given back to the schools within the next few weeks.

Shimabukuro says he’ll continue working on repairing as many ukulele as he can.